Title: Social Networking Sites in Thailand: motives and predictors of university students' behaviours

Authors: Nuchada Dumrongsiri, Vikanda Pornsakulvanich

Addresses: Albert Laurence School of Communication Arts, Assumption University, Samutprakarn 10540, Thailand. ' Martin de Tours School of Management, Assumption University, Samutprakarn 10540, Thailand

Abstract: Social Networking Sites (SNSs) have evolved dramatically as tools of online communication with capabilities of mass and interpersonal communication altogether. This study serves two purposes: a) to discover the reasons why people use SNSs; b) to investigate the relationships of how motives for using SNSs influenced their usage. Factor analysis generated a four-motive structure as the reasons for using SNSs: to develop new friendship, to maintain relationship, to pass time and to comply with peer pressure. Relationship maintenance was a strong predictor of how long participants had used SNSs, whereas new friendship and passing time positively predicted how much time participants spent on SNSs.

Keywords: social networking sites; social networks; internet; world wide web; blogs; online communities; Thailand; virtual communities; web based communities; universities; higher education; student behaviour; mass communication; interpersonal communication; motivation; motives; factor analysis; new friendships; relationship maintenance; passing time; pastimes; peer pressure; compliance; predictors; innovation; learning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIL.2010.035751

International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 2010 Vol.8 No.4, pp.427 - 444

Published online: 03 Oct 2010 *

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